What is the president saying?

During an interview with the New York Times this week, President Trump discussed an insurance plan that costs $12 per year.

Puzzling. Apparently he was equating life insurance with health insurance, in a rambling, confusing way.

The $12 per year reference came during a discussion about the political difficulty of taking away health care entitlements.

“Once you get something, it’s awfully tough to take it away,” he said.

That’s easy enough to understand. But, later, the president went on to say:

“So pre-existing conditions are a tough deal. Because you are basically saying from the moment the insurance, you’re 21 years old, you start working and you’re paying $12 a year for insurance, and by the time you’re 70, you get a nice plan. Here’s something where you walk up and say, ‘I want my insurance.'”

Follow-up questions from the Times would have been helpful, but maybe the reporters were too anxious to get on to Russia.

Trump’s argument, perhaps, is that Obamacare allows people who haven’t paid into the insurance system to suddenly enter that system and benefit from it. The president, we’ll assume, wants people to contribute over the long term.

OK. But $12 a year? Seriously?

Maybe the president misspoke.

Or maybe he was substituting $1-for-the-first-month term life insurance quotes for real-world health insurance premiums.

The president has a reputation as a master pitchman, but he’ll need to clean up his numbers if he wants to sell, with credibility, an Obamacare replacement plan.